Antonangelo
Antonangelo Chiaraporta or more commonly known by his first name Antonangelo (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Istalian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renascentia born in the Florenza, in the Kingdom of Tulino, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of the Selucian and in general the Western art. Considered by many the greatest artist of his lifetime, and by some the greatest artist of all time, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renascentia man, along with the Selucian artists and the one considered his rival, the fellow Florenzin, Riccardo Da Assise. Like many other artists Antonangelo left Istalia to move in Selucia, center of the Renascentia, where he realized works of painting, sculpture and architecture which rank among the most famous in existence. Biography Antonangelo was born in Florenza by an aristocratic family which For several generations had been small-scale bankers quite successful in lending money to the Ahmadi Caliphate supporting its war against the Augustan Empire and the other majatran nations. When, however, the Caliphate began to weaken at the beginning of 15th century also Chiaraporta family suffered and the bank failed forcing them to become administrators of little towns in the countryside suffering financial problems. When Florentia in 1479 retook indipendence like most part of Istalia following the fall of the Caliphate, his father, Angelico di Antonio Chiaraporta, was exiled due to its cooperation with the Ahamdis but, recognized as a quite capable administrator, he was sent to took a government post in a little town at the foot of the Alkhayl's White Heights under the jurisdiction of Florentia, but the economic situation remained precarious. Here the young Antonangelo was fascinated by the husband of his nanny, one of the many stonecutters working on the large marble cave, beginning to love the marble aspiring to become a sculpture. Like many young offspring of Istalian noble families of the second half of 15th century, as a young boy Antonangelo was sent to Vinesia to study grammar under the Humanists influenced by the Selucian Renascentia which, due to the close relations maintained by the Selucian-Istalian communities and Selucia, began to spread in Istalia already in late 14th century. However, he showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters. In 1488 Antonangelo was apprenticed to one of the most famous art master of the city who in 1490 moved in Florentia following the expantion of the Renascentia spreading in Istalia. Here Antonangelo was noticed by the republican Prince of the city and welcome in his court where began to be an appreciated artist. When Florentia Prince in 1494 died and the city fell under the influence of hosian zealots, Antonangelo was expelled by the city like many other artists and between 1494 and 1499 worked in several cities like Bunogna, Romula and Vinesia where he realized some of his first masterpiece. In 1499 Florentia Republic's aristocratic families ousted the hosian zealots to the power thanks to the force of the rising Kingdom of Tulino which established his protectorate on the city. The laws against moral corruption were thus abolished and the bannishing for artists and humanists reppealed. Antonangelo, by now a well new artists, was called by the government of the Republic which asked him to realize a colossal marmble statue to celebrate the regained freedom from the Ahmadi dominion to be placed on the gable of Florenza Cathedral. Antonangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of Elior, in 1504. The masterwork definitively established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical skill and strength of symbolic imagination. In the same year, the Republic commissioned to both Antonangelo and Riccardo Da Assise, the two most prominent artists of the city at the time, to realize two large frescoes in the Palace of the Government. The two paintings were very different: Riccardo depicted soldiers fighting on horseback, while Antonangelo had soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of them. The rivality between Antonangelo and Riccardo fully exploded with many anecdotes about their attempts to stand out on the other. It was in 1505 that the Patriarch of Istalia Lorenzo Dottori, visiting Florentia, his hometown, remained extremely impressed by the works of Antonangelo about whom he wrote to the Holy See declaiming the great skills of the artist and pushing the newly elected Arch Patriarch Clemens I to call Antonangelo in Auroria commissioning him to build the his tomb. Under the patronage of the Arch-Patriarch, Antonangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks. Although Antonangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction. During the same period, Antonangelo painted the ceiling of the Martine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512). According to the contemporary chonicler, Gaius Aurelius Barbatus, selucian prominent artist who was working on the rebuilding of St.Michael's Basilica, resented Antonangelo's commission for the Arch-Patriarch's tomb and convinced the Arch-Patriarch to commission him in a medium with which Antonangelo was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task. Antonangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornament. Antonangelo persuaded Clemens I to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Eliyahu. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the doctrine of the Apostolic Church. The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling and contains over 300 figures. At its centre are nine episodes from the Book of Creation, divided into three groups: God's creation of the earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by the History of Deluge. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women who prophesied the coming of Eliyahu, seven prophets of Beiteynu, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world. When Clemens I died he was succeded by Clemens II, formely the Patriarch of Istalia who noticed Antonangelo and who recommended him to Auroria who asked to the artist to come back in Florenza where for the glory of Arch-Patriarch family, the Dottori, he was commissioned with the realization of some of the most important masterpieces of the city, like Dottori Chapel, the Tommasian Library of the St. Thomas' Church and the many statues realized for the never realized facade of metioned Church. In In 1527 a revolt tried to oust to power the Dottori family to restore the freedoms of the Republic and Antonangelo supported it. When the forces of Tulino entered in the city suppressing the revolts and absorbing the republic in its Kingdom, with the Dottory family as Duke of the city, Antonangelo was banned. Despite Antonangelo's support of the republic and resistance to the Dottori rule, he was welcomed by Pope Clemens II, who reinstated an allowance that he had previously granted the artist and made a new contract with him over the tomb of Pope Clemens I. In 1534 Pope Clemens commissioned Antonangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Martine Chapel. The Arch-Patriarch was instrumental in seeing that Antonangelo began and completed the project which he laboured on from 1534 to October 1541. The fresco depicts the return of Eliyahu from the Great Hidding and his Judgement of the souls. Antonangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Eliyahu, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked. He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Thomas holds a drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Antonangelo. The dead rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to Hell. Once completed, the depiction of Eliyahu and the Virgin Sarahae naked was considered sacrilegious, and Cardinal Catalina and Monsignor Severianus campaigned to have the fresco removed or censored, but the Arch-Patriarch resisted. After the death of the Arch-Patriarch in 1574, and after Antonangelo's death in 1564, it was decided to obscure the genitals and Cicero from Assedo, an apprentice of Antonangelo, was commissioned to make the alterations. An uncensored copy of the original, by Marcellinus Venera, is in the Caput Collinae Museum of Octaviana. Antonangelo worked on a number of architectural projects at this time. They included a design for the Capitolium Hill with its trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Gaius Imperator. He designed the upper floor of the Domous Consularis and the interior of the Church of Saint Sarahae of Angels, in which he transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Selucian bathhouse. Other architectural works include Saint John of Istalians, the Commodus Chapel in the Basilica di Saint Sarahae Major and the Porta Quirina. While still working on the Last Judgement, Antonangelo received yet another commission for the Empyrean Temple. This was for the painting of two large frescos in the Leonin Chapel depicting significant events in the lives of the two most important saints of Hosianism, the Conversion of Saint Thomas and the Martyrodom of Saint Michael. Like the Last Judgement, these two works are complex compositions containing a great number of figures. They were completed in 1550. In the same year, Tito Visirianus published his Vita including a biography of Antonangelo. In 1546, Antonangelo was appointed architect of St. Michael's Basilica. The process of replacing the Adeodatian basilica of the 6th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations had been laid to the plans of Gaius Aurelius Barbatus. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Antonangelo was persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of Barbatus, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually. The dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by some historians and art critics "the greatest creation of the Renascentia". As construction was progressing on St Michael's, there was concern that Antonangelo would pass away before the dome was finished. However, once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, the completion of the design was inevitable. Category:Istalian people Category:Selucian people Category:History of Istalia Category:History of Selucia